The Evening in Haiku

Chinese seafood place
Sy Association night
dinner and raffle.

Typical Chinese
food made me glad I had a
sandwich earlier.

New officers
sang the National Anthem.
(Face us or the flag?)

Johnny Walker was
being passed along tables.
God, I wish I drank.

I was bored to tears,
but fortunately I then
won eight hundred bucks!

My parents and my
uncle, on the other hand,
didn't win diddly.

And now a final
observation for this night.
(Moon cake door prizes!)

Old man had a mole
at the corner of his lip.
It looked malignant.

No, wait. My mistake.
It was just the tip of his
tongue sticking out. (Ew.)

Weird Sight(s) of the Day

Of all the times to have a WSOTD entry w/o pictures to accompany it. Anyhoo...

• I saw a homeless kid --sporting only a T-shirt and briefs but riding the latter up to his butt like a pseudo T-thong-- shaking his skinny booty at the front office window of a bottled water refilling station, much to the irritation or indifference of the guy who was busy filling up (or cleaning) those huge water cooler jugs. I couldn't really interpret the guy's reaction (since I was just passing by in a moving vehicle), but the kid was definitely enjoying himself.

• In the midst of the rainy season a construction worker (for some reason they're never as busy in the dry season as they are in the wet ones) put his leg over one handle of the jackhammer he was using, presumably attempting to use his body weight to push the thing further into the concrete street. Couldn't they have just hired a bigger guy to operate the thing? This man probably uses his teeth to crack crab shells while eating them. (Last time I did that I chipped a molar.)

10 Thoughts on Avenue Q

Caught this show at RCBC Plaza w/ Cheryl. Would have taken pictures but both she and the play's production crew were camera-shy. While the latter had more legal grounds to be as such, the excuse of the former--while being a lawyer herself-- was a bit flimsy. And why give away flavored bottled water at the entrance while forbidding food and drinks to be brought inside?

• In hindsight I shouldn't have listened to the official soundtrack before watching the musical, as I was unable to bask in the freshness of the jokes, nor unable to laugh as hard as the rest of the audience upon hearing them.
• And maybe it was just me or my view from the balcony, but I was having trouble separating the puppet from the performer. Maybe that was the point (with performers emphasizing facial expressions the puppets are unable to), maybe not (some of the cast performing dual puppet roles onstage). I do agree w/ Rachel Alejandro's casting as Kate Monster and Lucy the Slut, as her wide vocal range was needed to pull of the role. On the other hand there were times Felix Rivera and Rycharde Everley were slipping into their respective Tagalog and British accents. Ah, what the hell. They were supposed to be in New York, anyway, melting pot and all.
  
• The Bert N Ernie gay analogy was out in half-full force w/ Ricky and Rod. I say half because only one of them was homosexual. Too bad Rod look more like Guy Smiley w/ glasses.
• I understand the reason for casting Aiza Seguerra as Gary Coleman. But height notwithstanding, she manages to capture the voice of Gary as a parody of himself, accent and all, w/ the slightest touch of Wanda Sykes. Just wish they found a red-n-blue striped sweater for her to wear underneath that Dutch Boy jumpsuit.
• Judging by audience reaction, nothing gets people howling more that a puppet simulating masturbation. Even more than simulated puppet sex.
• Kate Monster got the best lines ("Is her name... Purpose?"), while the Bad Idea Bears reminded me of Fluffy and Uranus, 2 also annoyingly creepy/cuddly bears who were freqently mutilated by their boss Duckman (another adult cartoon gem). ("Take her home!" "She's wasted!")
• Christmas Eve (played by Frenchie Dy by way of MadTV's Miss Swan) is wearing Crocs!
• Audience Participation came w/ The Money Song, when the cast went to ask for spare change from the people in the orchestra section. Good thing nobody came up the balcony. (Hello!? If we had extra cash we woulda paid for orchestra seats.)
• Nice the see the play's ending didn't go where I expected it. BA in English guy was a complete red herring.
• Shell out the extra dough instead of sticking it out in the P500 nosebleed section. Cheapskate and slowpoke that I am I only managed to get balcony seats for the last row. The balcony railings (and audience members on the first 2 rows) obscured my view of the stage the spotlight guy distracted us w/ his taking directions (from I'm assuming the technical director). It was the equivalent of watching a CAM copy of a movie. (Downloaders would know what I'm talking about.)
  

Side note: If I wanted a "name" cast for the musical I'd get the folks from Clueless. Imagine Paul Rudd as Princeton, Alicia Silverstone as Kate Monster, Stacey Dash as Gary Coleman, etc. Amy Heckerling, gimme a call.

The Road to Health is Paved w/ High Fiber

Did not have any rice today. Breakfast: Oatmeal and a tuna spread sandwich (own recipe). Lunch: Diced beef and pechay stir-fried w/ olive oil (own recipe). Snack: Lily's peanut butter sandwich. Dinner: Chicken and microwaved scrambled egg sandwich. All sandwiches used hi-fiber wheatbread. Worked out before dinner, and had 10 fibre capsules (5 each for 2 of the meals).

Imagine doing that 7 times a week. If I still end up getting cancer or a heart attack I'm gonna be mighty pissed.

Catching Up (Yet Again)

I felt like kicking myself for not taking full advantage of last week when the 'rents were off vacationing in Hong Kong. Didn't go out as much as I wanted, but instead made use of the new DVD player Ma won in a raffle (1 of 2 units, as well as a cordless phone). It had Divx, Xvid playback and .srt/.sub subtitle reading capabilities, as well as a USB port where I could plug in my Creative Muvo mp3 player like a flash drive. So now I can watch my downloaded movies on a normal television screen and lay on the couch while doing so.

On Friday I watched a "Concert for the Environment" at Le Pavillon sponsored by Cemex, featuring Fat Session (bad pun), Noel Cabangon (Joey Ayala lite), Kjwan (the J is silent) and The Dawn (bastards didn't even sing Enveloped Ideas). W/ me were Aissa, Raymond, Bebot, Rona (Dale Carnegie classmate) and her officemate Rhea. I'm not exactly sure what "environmentally friendly cement" is or how being sold in plastic bags isn't contradictory to that claim, but then again I was only there for the concert and grub.

Cocktail food, pasta and drinks were more than abundant (only had 1 SanMig Light, tho'), but all that beer and red wine still couldn't release the inhibitions of some of the corporate crowd that attended. Well, I never thought rock bands and suits mixed, much less rock concerts and plastic garden chairs. Fat Session run the gamut of covers, bookending the show by practically singing the entire Chorus Girls playlist and various disco/dance numbers. Former President and First Lady Ramos were in attendance, and man, did they grab attention of the rest of the VIPs (as well as the media), much to the chagrin of the band Kjwan, who was in the middle of a song number that went out to the quickly-emptied seats of the first 3 rows. All in all a okay show. Rons and Rhea even got to take home some penne bolagnese.

Saturday I went to the Book Expo w/ Goldy. Ran into Jan (who returned my DVDs), Lola (at the NBS booth where I bought Vol. 10 of 100 Bullets and where they where selling a copy of Absolute Sandman 175 bucks cheaper than when I bought it), Blessed and Marlene, who by coinkydink knew Goldy and tried to pry about whether we were an item or whatever. Far be it for me to share information on something even I wasn't sure of, so I didn't. wink wink nudge nudge. Had Japanese for dinner, Starbucks for dessert and their free bags of coffee ground ("for your garden") for souvenirs. When I got home the 'rents had arrived. They got what I asked for: at pair of wireless headphones (Logitech)! Bluetooth tech rocks!